Privatization ad absurdum

David Cay Johnston, who does a masterful job covering the IRS, reports that the IRS is letting tax lawyers craft tax laws. Why not leave the insurgency help to write the rules of engagement in Iraq; or the narco trafficers write the drug laws; or if you really want to turn matters over to scoundrels, let Congress write rules to cover its own behavior …. Wait a minute. They already do that.

“The Internal Revenue Service is asking tax lawyers and accountants who create tax shelters and exploit loopholes to take the lead in writing some of its new tax rules. The pilot project represents a further expansion of the increasingly common federal government practice of asking outsiders to do more of its work.”